Nancy Jo Humfeld
TETA Board of Directors
President / CEO
Greetings, Friends! There are so many things I want to share that I hardly know where to begin. The TETA Board has had a lot of activity in the four short weeks since TheatreFest – including attending to matters of governance, finance and board membership. We have received many suggestions from our members concerning how to improve what we are doing – we have listened to your concerns, and are in the process of making many changes, which I have summarized below.
First, let me say how wonderful it was to see so many of you at TheatreFest. We had record attendance, marvelous workshops, and special guests which made for a great time in Houston. Thank you to all who had such a big hand in making it so successful.
A big thank you, too, to Melissa McMillian-Cunningham who served so well as our President. She had a rocky beginning, being wheeled in to her first Board meeting with a broken back, but she persevered and did such a great job. I am indebted to her for her wisdom and advice as I take on this awesome responsibility.
Since TheatreFest, we have had two changes on the Board of Directors. We accepted, with regret, the resignations of Missey Head as President-Elect and Mandy Epley as Vice-President for K-12, both for personal reasons. However, we are happy to introduce two new officers who stepped in to carry on.
It is a pleasure to announce that I have appointed Phillip Morgan as President-Elect. Phillip is currently the Director of Fine Arts for Waco ISD. I have also appointed Sara Schochler as the Vice-President for K-12. Sara was the Vice-President-Elect for K-12 and seemed the perfect choice for this position. Both have accepted their appointments and are already hard at work on the Board to help TETA move forward. Please welcome Phillip and Sara and thank them for their willingness to serve our organization.
I feel it is also important to address certain communication regarding TETA and suggestions which have been made to help improve the organization. I am delighted to tell you that in the scant four weeks since TheatreFest, we have already begun to discuss and address many of the ideas which were shared with us.
The Board is in the process of revising the By-Laws this spring. Even though our last By-Law revision was done in 2010, there are still important revisions and omissions in the current By-Laws which must be completed/corrected. When the By-Laws are approved by the Board of Directors later this year, they will be then be presented to all members for discussion and approval at the Business Meeting at the Hyatt Regency Dallas in January, 2014.
With any revision of the By-Laws, a complete overhaul of our Manual of Operations cannot be far behind. It is essential that the processes in the Manual of Operations support the governance provided in the By-Laws; these are two documents which were always meant to work together and to correlate with TETA’s goals and charter. We are excited to get both these major tasks accomplished.
After Board of Directors’ approval of the financials and Form 990, both these documents will be posted on the TETA website for all the members to view whenever they so desire. This will make TETA the only fine arts educators’ organization in Texas which publishes both these documents on its website. Hopefully, other organizations will follow TETA’s lead in this endeavor.
TETA has retained the same accountant for over twenty-six years. This is a relationship that predates the involvement of all members of the current Board. While the TETA Board has from time to time discussed changing accounting firms, there has never been a decision made to do so. Starting this year, the Board will approve the selection of the accounting firm, and will request bids from three accounting firms which have no connections with anyone in TETA - not just Board members, but any member whatsoever.
Darve Smith is hard at work redesigning our website so that it will be more attractive, more functional, and easier to navigate. Darve inherited a website that had a number of technical issues, and he has worked hard to repair those. Darve is also working closely with the Board and an outside company on ways to make more information accessible to our members in an easier to understand format. When the website redesign is completed, we feel it will provide an excellent platform for posting governance, financial, and educational news of interest to TETA’s members. We are extremely grateful for all of Darve’s hard work.
I am very excited about working with the Board of Directors and the Chairs of the various committees. We have a magnificent organization filled with incredible educators and theatre lovers, and it is amazing what we can do when we work together as a team. I encourage you to contact the chairperson of your area or the appropriate Board member if you have any questions (or if you would like to volunteer to help). There is a lot of work to be done and knowing how busy we all stay, any offer of help is gratefully appreciated.
Please know that I welcome your emails and look forward to visiting with you in the year ahead. I have listened to your concerns in the areas of governance and finance, and I think the Board has taken concrete steps to make changes in these areas based on your concerns. Thank you for the opportunity to work as your President in this organization which I love so dearly.